The pope of the peripheries to visit PH
Much has been talked, broadcast, forwarded, and written about Pope Leo XIV, the first American-born, Augustinian-educated, Peruvian missionary who preferred the seminary over a law scholarship at Harvard, and who, via his words and deeds, quietly demonstrated the calling of every priest—and indeed, of every Christian—to care for the forgotten, the powerless, the outcasts, and the poor—yes, the peripheries of society.
THE NEW PONTIFF PERSONIFIES VATICAN II’S REFORMS in 1962-1965, propagated worldwide by Polish Saint Pope John Paul II and Argentinian Pope Francis, and implemented in our country in 1991 by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) via PCP II (Second Plenary Council of the Philippines). Unworthy me was included among the few laypersons invited to grace this lawmaking function, a first in the Universal Church’s 2000-year history.
No wonder, during his first Mass at the Sistine Chapel, attended exclusively by his cardinal brothers, Pope Leo XIV stressed the inclusive need to build bridges of faith, to go out of the sanctuaries to convert in the boondocks and valleys, to prefer mission over structures and dogmas, and to buckle down to the Lord Jesus’ summation of the Ten Commandments to only two: (1) Love God above everything and everyone, and (2) Love your neighbor as you love yourself. (To his disciples, the Lord was more stringent. He commanded them to love their neighbors “as I love you;” more stringent, because Jesus Christ died on the cross out of love for them and for all of us.)
I BELIEVE POPE LEO XIV was merely mouthing the Lord’s final questions to the souls lining up to enter Heaven allegorically recounted in Matthew 25:31-46: “Did you feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, welcome strangers, care for the sick or visit the prisoners?”
During his visit to Singapore, the late Pope Francis stressed the unity of mankind, saying off-script, “All religions are pathways to God … Since God is God for all, then we are all children of God.” Stated simply, this means salvation is for everyone: Catholics, other Christians, Jews, Muslims, and all who worship the Supreme Creator of this unimaginably humongous cosmos.
Pope Leo XIV’s motto says it all: “In illo uno unum. In the One, we are one.” So simply said, so inclusive, so easy to understand.
Cardinal Pablo Virgilio “Ambo” David, CBCP president, verbally invited the new pope to visit us (he had visited us in his earlier capacities), to which he positively replied, “If God allows it.” Cardinal Luis Antonio “Chito” Tagle reminded him that the Philippines holds the world record of 6 million attendees during a World Youth Day while Cardinal Joe Advincula seconded both of his Filipino colleagues.
However, the pontiff is not just the leader of the Church, he also heads an independent state, the Holy See. Hence, I suggest that President Marcos invites him—in his capacity as a sovereign.
HIS FELLOW AMERICANS LED BY PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP were pleasantly surprised at the honor bestowed on the United States. I tease my Trumpist friends that their hero is now only the second most important American in the world, and that MAGA now means Make America Godly Again.
I may have been joking but the truth is that Republican Party-dominated America has become quite conservative, though at times acting contrary to the essence of Matthew 25 that I paraphrased earlier. Example: Trump is deporting migrants without due process. Even the conservative Supreme Court of the United States has lately stopped these errant violations of human rights, ignoring Trump’s lament that the Scotus was “stopping what he was elected to do.”
In contrast to this liberal action, the Scotus—Pope Leo XIV would be glad to note—has amply shown its conservative streak in Dobbs v. Jackson (June 24, 2022, voting 6-3) that the alleged constitutional right to abortion is not in the text of the US Constitution, thereby overturning Roe v. Wade (Jan. 22, 1973) that, on the contrary, recognized the right of women to obtain an abortion. It also ruled that each state of the Union could legislate on whether abortion should be legalized within their respective spheres.
Here, abortion is barred by the Constitution and penalized by law as a major crime. It is the killing of a person akin to homicide and murder. In fact, the Holy Father would be happy to know that the landmark Imbong v. Ochoa (April 4, 2014, per J. Jose Catral Mendoza, en banc, 11-1-3) categorically held that life begins at fertilization, upon the moment of conception, that is, upon the union of the human sperm and egg. The zygote is a human being, and its killing is a crime.
I think Pope Leo XIV and the CBCP will strengthen the opposition to the bills to reimpose the death penalty and to legislate absolute divorce. On a personal note, when I was an incumbent, I consistently believed that the death penalty was unconstitutional.
Though backed by only one or two justices, I carried on my crusade against the death penalty, inter alia, for being repugnant to the pro-life orientation of our Constitution, until Congress and then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo came to my succor and repealed the dreaded death penalty law.
